Suna No Kitsune
by GinKit
Summary: After Haku "kills" Sasuke and the fox comes out to play, Uzumaki Naruto runs away from his precious people as to not endanger them further. Niceish Kyuubi and maybe Shukaku . Rinnegan!Naruto, adopted from KaitanAtreides
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Please review! No flames as this is my first Story and is adopted From KaitanAtreides. and as such this is a trial run i wil be changeing some of the original story and I hope that it turns out well.

And I don't own Naruto. He is the property of Tenmari .

Sasuke lay dead on that cursed bridge, a victim of another bloodline limit of a shinobi more ruthless than the young Uchiha. Naruto had ripped the dome of ice mirrors apart in his rage, and when he returned to his senses he saw the destruction he had caused.

It was true, the villagers were right. He was a menace.

Naruto couldn't stomach this anymore. He didn't want to be the cause of any of his precious people being hurt. He wanted to say goodbye, but he couldn't, and he hoped old man Hokage would understand. Naruto stuck a kunai quivering into the bridge by the fallen Uchiha- one which could be instantly recognized by the low quality- and jumped off, with only the clothes on his back and the contents of his backpack. If you're going to run away, might as well bring all you can. And as almost an afterthought, he had grabbed one of Sasuke's special "Uchiha kunai," as he called them, with a Sharingan symbol on the handle, to remind him why he couldn't go back.

And he left the Demon of the Mist and Sharingan Kakashi to their fight, and he leapt off into the trees, unconsciously running inland.

Hatake Kakashi, jounin of Konoha, sighed. At the bridge, Zabuza had slain most of Gatou's henchmen, Sasuke had revived, and Inari had led the villagers to stand up to their enemy. Inari had cried upon realizing Naruto's absence, and Sasuke was slightly shaken by the absence of the boy who had stopped Haku from killing the two of them, and then Kakashi, and then Tazuna...

Sasuke hefted the poor quality kunai, one of Naruto's that he had found on the bridge.

He spun it once and stowed it in his weapons pouch, thinking, "Survive and get stronger, dobe. I need someone to help my get stronger. And I want my friend back." His still-activated Sharingan spun slowly as he considered one of the few genin who did not respect him just because he was an Uchiha.

Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves before the Hokage, who looked up from his eternal enemy of paperwork to grin at him. "Kakashi!" the old man started before realizing the presence of the gash across Kakashi's chest. "What happened? Are Naruto and Sasuke alright? Sakura?" spilled out of the old man's mouth without leaving Kakashi a chance to fit in a word edgewise. Hatake Kakashi knew what he had to do. He was a jounin of Konoha, for goodness's sake. He drew himself up to his full height and said stiffly, "Hokage-dono, I am sad to report that while the mission was a success, as of yesterday Genin Uzumaki Naruto is missing in action."

A/N: Thats it for the first chapter nothing changed simply because it was just an opener I will hopefully update once a week if not more till I get to chapter 14 and have caught up to the original, afterwords i wil update as often as i can.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:

Uzumaki Naruto found himself in a small village in the south of Fire Country, doing odd jobs and steadily journeying west. His map showed it to be the nearest shinobi nation and Suna was supposed to be allied to Konoha, which made it not a betrayal in Naruto's weird little mind.

As he continued on his meandering path, he trained almost every day to become stronger, with kage bunshins running up trees and trying to balance on water and the original body did push-ups and sit-ups in the quiet moonlight. He had put on a good bit of muscle since Wave Country; constant exercise and eating food other than ramen- well, when he could get food- and fighting off the occasional bandit kept him in good shape. His hitai-ate was long since stashed away; it wouldn't do to be immediately recognized as a Leaf-nin. He had discarded the orange jacket, shredded from one too many fights; but the swirl patterns on the shoulders he had kept, as something deep down inside him knew that they were special. He had found something to cover up those whisker marks on his cheeks, and altogether Uzumaki Naruto, wandering orphan, was an almost completely different person from Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage-to-be of Konohagakure, the Ninja Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The man he was taking a job for, a retired shinobi, kept giving him strange looks as he organized the massive pile of shiny pointy weaponry into crates and boxes for sale. Kunai over here, shuriken over here, windmill shuriken farther over there, massive unknown object in the "unknowns" bin, la de da...

After several hours of the man staring strangely at the young boy (somewhere in a hidden underground lair, Orochimaru sneezed) while he sorted weapons, Naruto became fed up with the staring.

"Okay, what are you staring at?"

"Hm? Oh, it talks. You remind of a student Jiraiya-sama once brought through here on a training trip. His hair was the same color as yours, and the same facial structure, too. His name was Minato something. Just thinking, he'd be about old enough to be your mother- I mean father. Whoops. Henge techniques + boys with girly hair = screw me up. What's your father's name, kid?"

"I don't know who my father is. I'm an orphan, remember?"

"Oh yeah, no one with a family takes my jobs. Whoops. Well it seems you're done, so here are your ryo." The strange man handed Naruto a wad of cash and a scroll. Naruto gave the man a strange look. "What's the scroll for?"

"Inside this little scroll is a suitcase of clothes for you. Before you ask how it could possibly fit, it is a shinobi art called sealing..." and as the old man prattled on with his eyes closed and his finger in the air, Naruto easily unsealed the suitcase and was looking through the clothes, isolated phrases of the lecture being given to him floating through but mainly being blocked out. "chakra is the force which..." "handsigns allow you to mould chakra by..." Finally Naruto, having looked through all the clothes, raised a question. "Mister, why did you give me desert clothes?" The ex-shinobi stopped lecturing and opened his eyes to see Naruto having unsealed the suitcase and seen all its contents, judging by how half of them were hanging out of suitcase or were on the floor.

"Whoops." he said, his finger still in the air from his forgotten lecture. Then an almost predatory glint came into his eyes as he looked at Naruto. "You can use chakra?"

"Umm... yeah?"

"Where did you learn?

"Umm.." Naruto thought furiously at this point. "I was helping a genin team that passed through and their sensei showed me!

This appeared to satisfy him for a second, but then he fished around in his vest until he pulled out a square of paper. "This paper... is chakra paper. It is grown from specially treated trees and is used to detect elemental affinities. Before you ask, I shall enlighten you. There are five elements. Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Lightning, and a person has a main affinity to one of these elements which makes it easier to use that kind of jutsus." He handed the paper to Naruto, who looked at the man quizzically.

"Go on, go on! Put your chakra in it!"

"Okay..." Naruto channeled his chakra into the offending piece of paper, which immediately split cleanly in two. Naruto grinned. That paper had deserved it.

"A Wind type? Most rare, most rare, a gem in these parts." Suddenly the man was on his knees before him clasping Naruto's hands and looking at him with starry eyes.

"Become my apprentice! I shall teach you the way of the shinobi!"

Naruto hurriedly removed his hands from the strange man's grasp and politely but forcefully refused, having to do this several times before he got his point across.

"If you cannot become my apprentice, at least take these scrolls. They contain tips on chakra control and several wind jutsus."

"Okaythanksbye!"

Naruto sprinted away from the very strange man with his wad of cash in one hand and three scrolls in the other hand.

Konaha, Team 7 training grounds.

Sasuke threw a handful of shuriken before charging in. Sakura, his sparring partner, blocked the three with a kunai before engaging Sasuke in a taijutsu match. Uppercut- blocked. Sakura's roundhouse kick was caught and Sasuke threw her over his shoulder and as Sakura turned upon landing she saw him weaving handsigns. Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Release:Great Fireball Technique!) Sasuke spewed out a massive fireball. Sakura, knowing little but the Academy jutsus, kawarimi'ed with a convenient log. Sasuke, landing and seeing a merrily burning log, started developing a twitch. Where do all these convenient logs come from? Do they pull them out of trees or something? His thoughts were cut short by a Sakura jumping out of a tree with a kunai. Sasuke blurred up underneath her and punched her in the stomach, effectively ending the spar.

"Good job Sakura. You've gotten a lot stronger since Wave."

"I still have a long way to go to catch up to you and Naruto. We need to get stronger so we can bring him back."

"Hn."

Kakashi watched from his hiding-place in a tree, eye-smiling as he watched his two remaining pupils.

A/N Read and Review please no flames


	3. Chapter 3

A/N I have decided to make naruto and his new team more ninja like by haveing them from calling out their jutsu instead they will say them mentally, But Funijutsu wil still be spoken aloud if i add any, But this will not occure till after naruto starts training in a fcouple of chapters.

**Demon**

_Mental speaking_

Norml jutsu

_Mentally spoken jutsu_

Naruto Uzumaki, former Leaf-nin of Konoha (on a technicality) was lost. He had gotten a general direction towards Sunagakure and some extra desert supplies from a Suna chuunin in one of the border villages of Kaze no Kuni. The crossing from Hi no Kuni was easier than Naruto had thought; a simple Henge and he was through. But the sand stretched on endlessly, and he kept telling himself the ramen stand on the horizon was just a mirage. He had to keep going, there was nowhere to stop in this huge expanse of dunes. Then, of course, the Kyuubi had to make himself known.

**"Hey Kit".**

"Not now fox"!

**"If you keep running like this you'll pass out and you most likely won't survive that in these conditions".**

"Got it, will not pass out-" Naruto pitched forward and fell still.

The Kyuubi raged impotently at its container as Naruto fell into sweet cool darkness.

Sabaku no Temari walked quietly through the desert with her team, lost in her own thoughts. These missions got pretty boring when you just watched your little brother kill seventeen A-rank criminals without breaking a sweat. Sure, she could plan better, but who needed tactics when you had Sabaku no Gaara? Temari was broken out of her reverie by some sort of yellow thing lying in the sand. Upon coming closer, it was the shockingly blonde hair of a young boy, around Gaara's age, lying unconscious in the sand. Temari hurried to him, knelt down and checked his pulse. "Baki-sensei! He's alive, but suffering from heatstroke! We need to get him to Suna!" She picked up the boy easily; he was suprisingly light. Malnutrition. The boy struggled into consciousness for a bit and opened his eyes; the first thing he saw was Temari's face. He smiled, reached a trembling hand up to touch her hair, and said, "Pretty..." before passing out again. For some reason, Temari felt her face heat up. Kankuro chortled before being brained by a large tessen (iron fan for those who don't know). He tried to say something but stared at the fan which had suddenly appeared inches away from his face.

"Don't say anything. Good boy." Somewhere far off, no doubt working on his next evil plan, Tobi sneezed, causing his careful diagrams to all fly onto the floor. "Damn it!" he cursed, lighting them all on fire with Amaterasu. "Now BURN!"

When Naruto awoke, he found himself strapped to a bed with a needle in his arm and a nurse checking some instruments above his head that produced a steady beeping sound. He thrashed about, yelling, "I won't tell you anything, don't torture me, I'm fragile! HELP!"

Temari had gone to check up on the strange boy with the cute whisker marks on his cheeks that she found in the desert. Then she mentally scolded herself for such thoughts. "_No! Bad Temari! You don't even know him"!_ Then she heard the sounds of a scuffle from the room she had been directed to. She stuck her head through the slightly open door to see the boy in his light gray shirt and dark blue pants crouching and dusting off his hands, with the nurse lying in the restraints clearly too shocked to speak. "H-how..." she managed. The boy straightened and said, "You can't keep a ninja down. Unless you have chakra restraining cuffs. Or ramen..." he added, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. Then he turned and ran out the door only to run face first into Temari, who had stepped inside the room. Needless to say, they fell to the floor, and Naruto's face was somewhere... awkward for the older girl.

Naruto had closed his eyes on impact, and he thought, _"Whatever this is is really soft and warm." _He rubbed his cheek along his new pillows only to hear a soft gasp come from somewhere above him. He opened his eyes to be greeted by a view of tanned skin and then like a thunderbolt it hit him where his head was. He shot up and started stammering, "I'm sorry.. sorry... please don't kill me pretty lady!"

Ignoring the compliment, Temari screamed "PERVERT!" and lifted her fan and sprinted after Naruto, who ran away with a very feminine scream. Kankuro saw his sister on the warpath, chasing that blond boy she had found in the desert who happened to currently be running and screaming like a little girl.

Kankuro chuckled; then he turned around and walked down the street, everyone giving him a wide berth. No one wanted to be near the man in the strange black catsuit and face paint and a hairy bundle on his back. Plus, his little brother was Gaara of the Desert, the psychopathic killer who was so powerful he could make the ground under your feet rise up and crush you. Anyway, people stay away from Kankuro.

Naruto hurriedly jumped from rooftop to rooftop, mentally cursing. "_Why did I have to piss off that girl on my first day in Suna"_?

**"Despite the fact she's even cuter when she's angry?"**

_"damnit! Bad fox! Although I think I'm over Sakura-chan now..."_

Occupied by these heavy thoughts on the girl who outclassed Sakura in every respect (plus everyone loves fishnet) Naruto missed a jump and crashed heavily into a roof, gashing his arms as he caught himself on the gutter. When he swung back onto the roof, there was someone waiting for him. A redhead, about his height, standing with arms crossed and a massive gourd of some sort on his back. Dark rings surrounded his green eyes, reminding Naruto of a raccoon.

"Are you here to help me prove my existence?"

**"Damnit! It's the Ichibi Jinchuuriki! And I can tell from here he's unstable, must have had a bad sealing job."**

The blonde ninja walked up to Shukaku's container and said smiling, "Hello Ichi. I'm Kyuu."

In Gaara's mind, the Shukaku began thrashing about and wailing, remembering defeats at the Kyuubi's hands long past. Something showed in Gaara's eyes- reluctance? Then he saw the blood and whatever it was disappeared, replaced with a predatory glint.

"Mother wants your blood."

"Who's – Holy shit!" Naruto leapt away from the sand tendril snaking towards his feet. Gaara only smirked, as without him moving, six more leaped out of the sand drifting around his feet. Naruto continued to jump out of the way until one caught his ankle and he fell with a yelp. Immediately sand whipped around him, encasing him in a sphere.

"Sabaku Kyuu."

A block or two away, Temari skidded to a stop, seeing a floating ball of sand. She turned to Kankuro in the street below, also gazing at the floating sphere. "Damnit! That last mission should have satisfied him for at least another week!"

"Yeah, but some poor sucker's done at this point."

Then the ball began to bulge, and Gaara stopped his Sabaku Sousou, interested. Few actually fought back. Then the ball burst and hundreds of blondes spilled out across the rooftops. As one they pointed at Gaara and said, "You're going down, buster!"

A/N: Recommended to listen to Disturbed: Animal I Have Become.

Baki turned as he heard Temari's cry of "Baki-sensei!" He turned to see the globe of sand and his face grew sorrowful, until the globe exploded into Naruto's. His eyes widened._ "They must be Kage Bunshins, to do that! A Konoha kinjutsu? Who is this boy?" _He hurried towards the battle site, already starting the seals for a jutsu the Kazekage had showed him to control Gaara's demon in its early stages. Then something happened which made him veer sharply and run straight towards the Kazekage's tower.

Naruto's clones were mostly dispelled, but as they attacked from all directions, Naruto himself barreled towards the redhead. And as the sand stopped the other attacks, Naruto's massive uppercut struck Gaara, sending the other boy flying upwards. Some of the braver villagers shouted out, "Kill him! Kill the demon!" Naruto's head snapped around, and his face fell, thinking, Even here? They know, and hate me, even here? Naruto's reaction did not go unnoticed, namely by Baki as he whizzed towards the Kazekage. But Gaara landed with cracks showing across his face, and then sand began to fall away as he laughed maniacally, insanely, as his gourd dissolved into sand and his voice steadily became deeper.

**"Ready to die, Kyuubi? You're still trapped in that sad container of yours, and can't help, kukuku..."**

Naruto, seeing the destructive power of Gaara's transformation, began to run towards the outside of the village, praying he could get it away from the people. Dodging lashing whips and clumps of sand, he reached the walls. A rather slow chuunin the size of an Akimichi was on the wall patrolling right then, and he said "Stop! Who are you and why are you leaving the village? Do you have the Kazekage's permission?"

"GottagoShukakubye!"

"Huh?" He then turned and saw the partially transformed Sabaku no Gaara laughing demonically as he bounded over the rooftops after the blond boy, who stood hundreds of yards out in the desert, hands together and eyes closed, chakra whipping around him and blowing his hair around. The chubby chuunin waddled away, screaming and waving his arms above his head. Gaara reached the Uzumaki and said,

**"Given up, human?"**

"I'll never give up! I'll always protect my precious people!"

**"Strength comes from fighting for yourself."**

"No!" and with a roar he unleashed "Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind Release – Great Breakthrough!) which only pushed the partial Shukaku back on its heels.

Now you've made me angry! Prepare for the full power of a Bijuu!

And as it said these words, sand flew up from the ground and surrounded the demonic tanuki, increasing it greatly in size.

"Fuuton: Renkuudan!" (Wind Release- Drilling Air Bullet!)

The massive blast of air leveled an area of sand dunes and sent Naruto bouncing and tumbling across the ground before he finally skidded to a halt.

**"How pitiful, Kyuubi. I thought you stronger than that."**

An aura of red chakra seeped out of Naruto and covered him in a cloak of chakra, one red tail swishing behind him. His eyes were now red and slitted and menacing, instead of the happy cerulean blue normally in their place. He roared and bounded forward at the massive tanuki, moving almost faster than the untrained eye could follow. A looping punch was blocked by the sand nearby but the looping chakra claw slipped past to grab the massive leg of sand. Gaara softly murmured a jutsu that put him to sleep on top of the Ichibi's head.

_"How in hell do I defeat this thing?"_

**"Wake up the guy on his head! Do you pay attention to anything?"**

But while he spoke to the fox, Shukaku dislodged the chakra claw and batted Naruto away with his tail. Naruto managed to land on all fours and skid backwards, breathing heavily as the red chakra cloak flickered.

Temari cried out "Naruto!" but immediately clapped her hands across her mouth, realizing the Shukaku had heard.

**"Your blood too, it seems."** mused Shukaku as he send a massive blade of wind at its container's sister.

Temari was paralyzed but just before it reached her a red flash crossed her vision and Naruto was in front of her, and a spray of his blood across the ground in front of him, a massive diagonal slash across the boy's torso. It was a miracle he hadn't been cut in half. Then Naruto screamed and fell to his knees, hands covering his eyes. When he rose and looked the curious Ichibi in the eye, it recoiled.

**"That eye! Rikudo Sennin! HOW DARE YOU PRESUME TO HIS EYES!"**

Naruto was gone in another red flash and stood under the still-reacting tanuki, his palm pressed against the massive beast's belly.

"Shinra Tensei."

The massive form of Shukaku gave one last despairing scream as it was driven high into the air, slowly dissolving as the massive forces of Shinra Tensei acted upon it. Not knowing of the massive power of the jutsu, the shinobi lining the walls thought he had done that with a single punch and gasped. Then the Uzumaki leaped up to strike Gaara clear out of the head of the Ichibi with a single strike. And as they both fell to earth neither had enough energy or chakra to stop their fall and both fell heavily. Naruto began to crawl towards the redhead lying a few feet away.

For the first time in nearly six years, Gaara of the Sand Waterfall was scared. This- this- boy had defeated the full (well, almost) form of a Bijuu and was coming for him.

"Gaara- strength doesn't come from killing from yourself, but from protecting those close to you."

"You - you are like me..."

"You were hated growing up too, but that's no reason to kill innocent people and scare your family. They still love you, They're just scared of your anger at everyone. Even jinchuuriki need friends, Gaara"

And as he started to black out, Sabaku no Gaara looked into the purple-ringed eyes of his counterpart and thought "Friends..." and fell into blackness as the Suna shinobi landed all around them.

And Sabaku no Temari just stared at Naruto's blood on the chakra burns from his aura on her hands.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N:The pairing is set at NaruTema, But i May add Hinata and only her i will not turn this in to a Harem. I just think that she deserves to be Happy as well but i am yet undisided so i will leave it up to my readers.

As Naruto woke up he saw a white ceiling. _"Annoyingly white. Must be a hospital."_ He slowly got up and padded to the door. Then an orderly looked up to see him looking lost and offered a small smile. "Excuse me, mister, but the Kazekage asked to see you once you were healed. Which apparently is now. But as a medical question, have you always healed so rapidly?"

"Yeah, as far as I can remember."

"Thank you, and here are your normal clothes. The Kazekage's office is easy to spot."

"Thank you." Uzumaki Naruto changed and strode into the bright sunlight of Suna, eyes half-closed as they had been since he woke up that day.

"Wait a sec. You said someone "fought" with Gaara. That's not how it works. People "get killed by" Gaara. What's going on, Baki?"

"Kazekage-sama, they are coming right now and I believe you should ask them the same question." Then Gaara and Naruto, followed by Temari and Kankuro, entered the office.

"Hundreds of shinobi report seeing the Shukaku released outside the walls this morning, yet this boy is still alive. Does anyone care to explain how a wandering orphan boy defeated the One-Tailed Shukaku? You, boy, what's your name?"

'Uzumaki Naruto." he mumbled, looking down so his eyes could not be seen.

"There are still Uzumakis in this world? I thought we killed them all when we sacked Uzushiogakure."

"You know of my family?"

"You don't? And your hair isn't red, that's a Namikaze blonde. Who were your parents?"

Naruto hung his head, finally whispering, "I don't know." Then his eyes flashed and his head shot up as he said in a dangerously quiet tone, "You killed my relatives?"

"Beside the point. So, Uzumaki-san, how could you defeat the Shukaku?"

"Ummm..." Naruto pulled up his shirt to show the seal and grinned.

A seal... "You are a jinchuuriki then? Which Bijuu do you contain?"

Barely above a whisper "Nine-Tails."

"I'm guessing you're from Konoha, judging from the last recorded incident with the fox. The villagers hated you, didn't they." Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "No one here has any history with the fox; you can have friends here. You already know my children. So, Uzumaki Naruto, I name you a genin of Sunagakure. Wear this headband proudly." With this weird little speech, he gave Naruto a Suna hitai-ate. The blond ninja started jumping around the room yelling "NINJA NINJA NINJA!" until a tendril of sand dragged him back. "Wait a second, they're your children?" he said incredulously, his sweeping arm gesture including the Sand Siblings. Kankuro chuckled at the blond's being slow on the uptake. Naruto spun and pointed dramatically at the puppeteer.

"Shut up! At least I don't wear makeup and play with dolls!"

At this Temari cracked up, the corners of Gaara's mouth twitched, and the Yondaime Kazekage leaned back in his chair, letting out a loud guffaw.

"Now that is settled, you need a place to stay."

"He could stay at the Sabaku estate." Gaara interjected. "There are plenty of people he knows and little danger."

"Agreed."

And Naruto found a home in Suna, with eyes still unknown.

KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO

Sasuke and Sakura stood on that fateful bridge that held so many memories for Team 7, or what was left of it. Kakashi was still not there, and it had been two hours since he told them to be there.

"What does Kakashi do when he's supposed to be here?"

"No idea. Sleep?" mentioned the Uchiha.

"If he's sleeping he deserves a wake-up call with an exploding tag."

The dark-haired boy chuckled and added "Eroton: Sennen Goroshi (Pervy Style: One Thousand Years of Death), with an exploding tag!" miming the action.

"Maybe he reads Icha Icha?"

"Maybe he lives Icha Icha?"

"... No Sasuke, that's just gross."

"There's no Naruto to make stupid comments anymore. I'm just filling in where he left off."

A silence filled the air as the two remaining members of Team 7 thought of their blond comrade, missing in action. Then of course Kakashi arrived in a puff of smoke, waving, "Yo."

"I just talked to the Hokage." Sakura and Sasuke shot each other a look. Not noticing, Kakashi continued. "The Chuunin Exams will be happening in six months (A/N: I added a bit extra to have Naruto get more time in Suna.) and you'll stay as a two man team. Think you guys can swing it?"

Sasuke and Sakura shared a glance and nodded. The pink-haired girl spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei, when we are chuunin we can lead teams, right?" And when the scarecrow nodded, Sakura looked significantly at Sasuke and they both nodded.

When we are chuunin we can go search for Naruto.

000000000000000000000000

Uzumaki Naruto came in to the house through the open door behind the Sand Siblings, yawning as he did so. When he realized his surroundings, he his eyes snapped fully open. The house was full of puppets all pointing at the doorway and sand sculptures. Lots of sand. Everywhere in the room.

"Umm.. Gaara? Why is there so much sand?"

Gaara fixed him with an expressionless glare. "How do you think I refill my gourd?"

"Oh. Heheh, I guess that makes sense," said the blonde, scratching the back of his head nervously.

The stoic redhead turned to his siblings and said, "Who is making dinner tonight?"

Neither one volunteered, so Gaara said, "As there are no volunteers, I shall do it."

Kankuro cut in, "Gaara, last time you cooked, it growled at us and tried to jump off the table. And it was an omelet! Then you used a Sabaku Kyuu and Sabaku Souso on it and ordered ramen!"

Naruto giggled at this, the mental image of Gaara crushing an omelet with his sand. Having drawn Gaara's attention thus, Gaara turned to him with a faint smile quirking the corners of his mouth.

"Uzumaki, as it is your first night, you have to make dinner." Naruto's eyes sparkled as he seemed to rise up until the other jinchuuriki added, "No ramen." Then he wilted in on himself and seemed to grow smaller before their eyes until he straightened up again.

"I'll make a really good dinner then! It'll be awesome"

"Kitchen is in there, bathrooms are down both hallways, your room is-" Kankuro's eyes seemed to twinkle maliciously- "down there, second on the left, across from Temari's."

Naruto's prankster senses were tingling at that pause, but he dismissed it as he didn't know the Sand Siblings very well. How do you get a prankster in the same house as a homicidal Gaara and a badass sexy sister who could kill you? Then Naruto ran to drop off his stuff and start making dinner.

An hour or so later, Uzumaki Naruto called out, "Dinner's ready!" and they appeared so fast it seemed they must have used Shunshin. "Here we have chicken teriyaki with some chicken fried rice and grilled vegetables. Hope you like it, I found it in a cookbook over-" He waved his arm randomly until he figured out the direction. "-thataway."

The three children of the Kazekage took a bite cautiously. Their faces lit up and they chowed down, happily stuffing their faces. Kankuro said through a mouthful of food, "You're cooking now!" Gaara and Temari nodded emphatically. Well, Temari nodded emphatically, Gaara just looked up and nodded once before turning back to his food. Naruto was surprised. Six kage bunshins and a fat cookbook and he was a master chef! The Sand Siblings, having cleared their plates ridiculously fast, murmured a quick thanks and headed to bed. Naruto headed in also and lay in bed, thinking about how fast things had gone here in Sunagakure. ""_First day, meets a sexy girl, fights a giant tanuki demon, has his eyes start hurting randomly, and.. yeah."_ Then he was interrupted by the bed creaking.

In the other hall, Kankuro was grinning madly as he manipulated the chakra strings attached to his fingers, and, at the other end, to Naruto's bed. Then he pulled on one, and grinned even wider as it gave and he quickly cut the strings and rolled over completely innocuously.

Then the bed beneath Naruto opened, revealing a pit beneath. The bed was a giant puppet! And then it began to chase Naruto around the room, its open mouth swinging maliciously. Naruto ran around his room, dodging, sticking to walls, and such, to escape the killer bed. Eventually, Naruto managed to stick a kunai in its central mechanisms, to where it stopped, leaning over Naruto on two legs. Then the blonde knuckleheaded ninja grabbed a pillow and grumbling headed across the hall to the nearest other person.

Temari was cold. She couldn't seem to find any of her stuffed animals, and the covers were thin. And desert nights got cold. And then, Naruto walked in. "Temari," he began.

"Yeah?"

"Kankuro turned my bed into a puppet that tried to eat me. Can I sleep in here? I don't want to sleep next to it."

"Come over here."

Naruto complied, rather bemused. When he got close, she grabbed his arm and pulled him into bed. Due to his occupant, Naruto was always warm. She ignored his protesting, only muttering, "Shut up, don't do anything perverted and go to sleep." She then grabbed him for use as an oversized teddy bear. Naruto had to admit, this felt nice.(Somewhere far away, reaserching for his next book, Jiraiya sneezed then felt proud of his godson for an unknown reason.) Temari was soft and warm and close to him. People never really touched him nicely in Konoha, and he agreed, it was very nice. Ignoring the fox's cry of, "**The kit's getting some! Ooooohhh..."**he fell asleep warm and feeling completely safe for the first time in years.

It was early morning, and Sabaku no Gaara was hungry. He wanted Uzumaki to cook breakfast, and he wasn't in his room, which had the bed all contorted strangely and seeming like it was trying to attack something. So he logically went to Temari's room to see if she'd seen the newcomer this morning. But he was not prepared for what he saw when he opened the door. Uzumaki was in his sister's bed! How dare he? But, he thought, Temari must have agreed as otherwise that strange anti-pervert strength women seemed to possess would have defeated even him. Although they looked very peaceful and content, the two blondes snuggling.

An arm of sand reached out to try and lightly pull away Uzumaki, but as soon as he began to move, Temari grabbed him and pulled him back, snuggling even closer into him, if that was even possible, given how close the two of them were. The arm of sand retracted. Suddenly a flash fell on them and Gaara turned to see Kankuro with a camera taking pictures, with that same evil grin on his face.


End file.
